Accenture finds Information Governance Framework Needed to Guide E-Health Investments and Strategy

RESTON, Va.; Aug. 12, 2010 – According to a new report from Accenture (NYSE: ACN), healthcare organizations planning large investments in e-health solutions face challenges in five interrelated disciplines of information governance – data privacy, confidentiality, security, quality and integrity.

The report, Information Governance: The Foundation for Effective e-Health, details and explores specific targets for the five disciplines and provides an actionable framework that healthcare organizations, such as care providers, insurers, and public health organizations can use to perform a high-level assessment of their current information management situation, challenges and opportunities. The objective is to ensure investments in e-health are supporting strategic goals of increasing efficiency and reducing costs, reducing errors, and improving patient outcomes. The target areas for evaluation explained in the report are:

Data Privacy

Data Confidentiality

Data Security

Data Quality

Data Integrity

The new report draws heavily on Accenture’s experience supporting health care organizations’ efforts to transform administrative and clinical systems, capture and manage data, develop evidence-based insights, and connect fragmented health care systems.

“Health care organizations are making unprecedented investments in e-health systems, and this new framework speaks to the practical but rather complex implementation challenge, namely to ensure the investments are successful,” said Mark Knickrehm, global managing director of Accenture’s health care practice. “From working on e-health implementations around the world, we have built and are sharing this framework to help organizations address data privacy concerns, ensure compliance with standards and regulations, maximize the value of electronic health record systems, and support physician adoption.”

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 190,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$21.58 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2009. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Contact:

Jennifer Francis

Accenture

+1 630-338-6426

Jennifer.Francis@accenture.com